We believe that prophethood is a Divine duty and a
mission from Allah; He appoints to it those whom He
selects from among His good servants, from those who are
exalted among mankind. He sends them to the rest of
humanity to be a guide to what is of benefit to them and
is in their interest in this world and the next; to
purify them from immorality, evil deeds and harmful
customs, and also to teach people wisdom and knowledge
and the ways of happiness and goodness until they attain
to the perfection for which they were created, and reach
the highest position in both worlds.

We believe that the Grace of Allah (lutf)
requires that He send His messengers to His servants to
guide them, to carry out reforming work, and to be
intermediaries (sufara', pl. of safir)
between Allah and his gerents (khulafa', pl. of khalifah).
For we believe that Allah does not allow mankind to
appoint, nominate or select a person as a prophet; indeed
only Allah can choose and appoint someone as a prophet,
because:

Allah knoweth best with whom to place His message.
(6;125)

It follows that people have no right to dispute over
those whom Allah sends as guides, bringers of good
tidings and warners of what is to come, nor over that
which they bring, i.e. the commandments and religious
laws.

Man is a changeable creature, a complex structure
containing his being, his nature, soul and intelligence.
Every individual personality is similarly of a complex
nature, in which there are causes of good and evil. On
the one hand, man has been created with emotions and
instincts, such as self-love, desire and pride; he obeys
the call of his desires, has a natural disposition to
show his superiority over others, to own things, and to
take for himself that which belongs to others; he rushes
recklessly at the objects and ornaments of this world. As
Allah has said:

Lo! Man is in the way of loss. (103;2)

and:

Surely man waxes insolent, for he thinks himself
self-sufficient. (96;6&7)

and also:

Surely the soul of man incites to evil. (12;53)

There are other verses which clearly talk about and
point to the desires and feelings of the human soul which
was created with man.

On the other hand, Allah has given intelligence (aql)
to man to guide him to what is in his interest and to the
way of goodness, and He has also bestowed on him a
conscience which prevents him from doing evil and
oppressing others, and which also upbraids him when he
has sinned.

There is continual enmity and struggle between man's
desires and his intelligence. One whose intelligence
overcomes his desires will attain the highest position
among mankind and a perfect spirituality, but one whose
desires to conquer his intelligence will be among the
great losers, the lowest of mankind and comparable in
nature to the beasts.

The desires and their legions are stronger than
intelligence and its armies, and this is why most people
go astray and wander far from the straight path of
guidance, through obeying their desires and answering the
call of their emotions. As is said in the Qur'an:

And though thou try much, most men will not believe.
(12;103)

Besides, man is reluctant and unaware of all the facts
and secrets of the world around him, and since he is also
ignorant of his own self, how can he know all that will
make him prosperous and what will make him suffer. how
can he know everything that is in his own interest or in
the interests of mankind as a whole? Whenever he advances
with a new discovery, he sees his own ignorance and
realises that he knows nothing. It is because of this
that Man has an insistent need for someone to show him
the clear, straight path to prosperity and to give
support to his intelligence, so that it may overcome its
unruly, persistent enemy, and so that he may prepare to
fight his emotions.

Man is desperately in need of someone to help him to
the path of goodness and happiness, especially when his
emotions deceive him, disguising his bad actions as good
and his good actions as bad, as a result of which his
intelligence is confused and cannot find the right path
to prosperity and distinguish between the real good and
the real evil.
Everyone of us has succumbed on this battlefield, either
consciously or unconsciously. except the man whom Allah
protects. It is difficult for an enlightened, civilised
man to attain the way of goodness and happiness, so how
much more difficult is it for an ignorant, unschooled
man!

When all people co-operate and consult with one
another and deliberate together they are still unable to
understand what is useful and what is harmful for
themselves and for society. So Allah through His Grace
and Mercy for mankind sends them a messenger. The Qur'an
says:

He it is who sent among the unlettered ones a
messenger of their own, to recite unto them His signs,
and to purify them and to teach them the Book and Wisdom.
(62;2)

and he (the messenger) warns them concerning what is
evil and gives glad tidings to them about what is good
for their welfare.

(The giving of) this Grace is necessary for Allah,
because it is a sign of His Perfection, and He is Kind
and Generous to His servants. When a man deserves His
Mercy and Grace, Allah must grant it to him, because
there is no deficiency or withholding in the Being of
Allah. The meaning of "necessary for Allah" is
not that anyone forces Him to act in this way and that it
is necessary for Him to obey, but it means that this is
an inseparable attribute of Allah, i.e. Mercy and Grace
cannot be separated from Him, in the same way as we say
that His Existence is inherent in Him, or that He is
Necessarily Existent, i.e. His Existence is co-existent
(with Him) and cannot be separated (from Him).

We believe that when Allah appoints someone as a
leader and a messenger for His creatures, He must point
him out to them. In the perfection of His Grace and
Bounty, He must give His prophet some evidence and a
testimony for His message to show to the people, and this
must be of a kind that is only within the capability of
the Creator of all beings and Provider for all creatures,
and beyond the ability of man.
This evidence He hands through His messenger, so that He
may introduce him to humanity, and this evidence we call
a miracle. It is also necessary that the prophet should
manifest his miracle to people when he calls them to his
prophecy, and similarly it should be clear (i.e. all
people should know that it is beyond the ability of man),
and such that all men of knowledge and all the experts of
his time are unable to perform anything like it, much
less the ordinary people. Also, the miracle must coincide
with the time of his claim to prophecy so as to
constitute evidence of his calling.

When the men of knowledge and the experts are unable
to repeat the miracle, people can understand that it is
beyond human ability and that it is 'supernatural', and
thus that the prophet, through a spiritual relationship
with the Provider of all beings, is above mankind.
Consequently, when such a prophet brings his miracle and
calls people to his prophecy, it is incumbent upon all to
accept his call, believe in his message, and obey his
command; but some shall believe and some shall deny him.

We therefore see that the miracles of each prophet are
in accordance with the important arts and sciences of his
time. For example, the miracle of Musa (A.S.) was a rod
which swallowed up the lies of the magicians, for magic
was the most popular art of his time. His rod destroyed
what the magicians had done, and they understood that it
was beyond their ability and their skill, and humanly
impossible, and that science and art were worthless in
comparison with it. Also the miracle of 'Isa (A.S.) was
his curing of those born blind and leprous and his
restoring to life the dead, because he lived in times
when medical science was well thought of among the
people, and scientists and physicians held high esteem in
society. But all their science could not equal his
miracle.

The miracle of our Prophet, Muhammad (S.A.), is the
glorious Qur'an, which silenced by its eloquence and
fluency all those who were eloquent, at a time when
rhetoric was the art of the day and orators were held in
high esteem. The Qur'an humiliated and astonished them,
warning them that they were unable to produce anything
like it, and they surrendered to it. The occasion for
their inability was when the Qur'an challenged them to
produce ten comparable surahs, but they could not; then
it challenged them to produce one such surah, and they
could not. We know that they failed the challenge to
produce a surah like those contained in the Qur'an, and
we know that they took refuge in fighting with the sword
instead of the tongue. We understand that the Qur'an is a
miracle and that Muhammad (S.A.) brought it with him
calling the people to his message. So we know that he is
Allah's messenger, and that he brought the truth.

We believe that all the prophets are infallible, and
also that the Imams (A.S.) (the successors to the Prophet
of Islam) are infallible, but some non-Shi'a Muslims do
not believe in the infallibility of the prophets, let
alone of the Imams. Infallibility means purity from all
sins, both major and minor ones[1], and from mistakes and
forgetfulness. It is necessary that a prophet should not
even do what is contrary to good manners.

that is, he should not behave vulgarly, for example by
eating in the street, by laughing aloud, or by doing
anything which may be unacceptable to public opinion.

The reason for the necessity of the infallibility of a
prophet is that if he commits a sin or mistake, or is
forgetful or something similar, we have to choose between
two alternatives: either we obey his sins and mistakes,
in which case, in the view of Islam, we do wrong, or we
must not obey his sins and mistakes, which too is wrong,
because this is contrary to the idea of prophethood where
obedience is necessary; besides, if everything he says or
does has the possibility of being either right or wrong,
then it is impossible for us to follow him. The result is
that the benefit of his mission is lost; it becomes
unnecessary, and the prophet becomes like ordinary people
whose acts and speech do not have the excellent worth
that we seek, with the result that there will be no
obedience and his actions will be unreliable.

The same reason is adduced for the infallibility of
the Imams (A.S.), because we believe that the Imam is
appointed by Allah as the Prophet's representative (khalifah)
to guide mankind. This will be explained in the section
on the Imamate.

Just as we believe in a prophet's infallibility, so
also we believe that he must be endowed with the most
perfect human attributes - bravery (ash-shaja'ah),
diplomacy (as-siyasah). sagacity (at-tadbir),
patience (as-sabr), intelligence (al-fitnah)
and quick-wittedness (adh-dhaka'), so that there
is no-one who excels him in such qualities. Otherwise, it
is not fit th at he should lead people and administer the
affairs of the whole world.
He must also be of good descendency, honest, truthful and
free from all vices, from before the beginning of his
prophecy as well, so that people can trust in him and so
that he may deserves this great, Divinely-given position.

We believe, in general, that all prophets follow the
right path, are infallible and pure, and that to deny
their prophecy, to revile or deride them, results in a
loss of faith and insincerity in belief For the denial of
them entails the denial of our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.)
who spoke concerning them and confirmed them.

As for the prophets whose names and shara'i'
(pl. of shari'ah) are well-known, i.e. Adam, Nuh,
Ibrahim, Dawud, Sulayman, Musa, 'Isa and others that are
mentioned in the Qur'an, we must believe in each of them.
In truth, one who denies one of them has denied them all,
and he has especially denied the prophethood of our own
Prophet.

Likewise, we must believe in their books and in what
has been revealed to them. But the Torah ( Turah -
the Book of Musa (A.S.)) and the Gospels such as we have
them in our hands now have been proved not to be what was
revealed to Musa and 'Isa (A.S.). some persons who were
confused by their own desires and by covetousness have
changed them by adding to them, so that most of them, or
all of them, were compiled after their time by some of
the followers of the prophets Musa and 'Isa (A.S.).

and that it is the true. Divine shari'ah that
has abrogated all previous shara'i'. It is the
most perfect shari'ah, according with man's
happiness and containing all that is in his interest, in
this world and in the next. It call never become
obsolete. and will last for ever; it is not changeable
and will not be transformed in any way; it contains all
that mankind needs: individual, social and political
rules. For it is the last shari'ah, and there is
no hope for another religion to come and reform humanity,
which is sinking into oppression and corruption.
Therefore the day must come when the Islamic religion
will become strong and its justice and laws will be
spread over the entire world. When all the people of the
world act correctly in accordance with all the laws of
Islam. peace and prosperity will increase and spread
among mankind, and man will attain the highest peak which
he can imagine: well-being, dignity, plenitude,
contentment and ideal morality will arise, and
oppression. poverty and indigence will disappear from the
surface of the earth to be replaced by love and
brotherhood among men.

The reason that at the present time we see such a
shameful condition among the people who call themselves
Muslims is that their behaviour, from the very beginning,
has not been truly in accordance with Islamic law. This
dishonourable state has continued and has become worse
and worse. The acceptance of Islam has not been the cause
of this disgraceful situation of backwardness among
Muslims. On the contrary, it has been caused by their
disobedience of its teachings, their negligence of
Islamic laws, the prevalence of oppression and the enmity
of their rulers towards the poor and of certain groups
towards the common people, and this it is that has
paralysed their progress, weakened them, broken their
spirit and brought calamity and tragedy upon them. Allah
has destroyed them by their sins:

That is because Allah never changes the Grace He has
bestowed on any people until they first change what is in
themselves. (8;53)

Thus does Allah treat His creatures.

Lo! the guilty never are successful. (10;17)

In truth, thy Lord would never destroy their cities
unjustly while as yet their folk were doing right.
(11;117)

Even thus is the grasp of the Lord when He grasps the
cities while they are doing evil. Lo! His grasp is
painful, terrible. (11;102)

How can we expect the religion to save the community
from the depths of perdition, when the teachings of the
religion are just ink on paper and people do not act one
little bit in accordance with them?

The basic foundations of Islam are: faith in Allah,
honesty, truthful ness, sincerity. good behaviour and
generosity, and a Muslim must want for his brother what
he wants for himself But Muslims left this all behind
them a long time ago.

Daily we see them (the Muslims) dispersing into
various sects and groups. competing for the things of
this world, each one attacking and accusing the other of
impiety for unknown or imaginary reasons, or for useless
purposes, ignoring Islam and the interests of both
themselves and society. Thus do they dispute: Is the
Qur'an created or not? Have paradise and hell been
created or will they be created (in the future)? and so
on. The nature of these disputes shows that they have
deviated from the right path which they have been shown,
and are heading towards ruin and destruction, and day by
day they deviate further. Ignorance and perversion
surround them, but they Occupy themselves with useless
and superficial matters, superstitious and imaginary
things. Fighting, bickering and boasting cause them to
descend further into the bottomless abyss. At the same
time, the West, ever vigilant, but a persistent enemy of
Islam, has become powerful and colonised Islamic
territory, while Muslims remain unaware and half asleep.
Only Allah can know the extent and the end of these
misfortunes.

In truth the Lord would never destroy their cities
unjustly while as yet their folk were doing right.
(11;117)

There is no alternative for assuring the Success of
the Muslims either today or tomorrow, but for them to
wake up, consider well what they do, educate themselves
and their generation by correct Islamic teachings and
thus remove the oppression and cruelty. Inn this way can
they save . It is their responsibility to establish
themselves from this great calamity, justice throughout
the world, after having done away with oppression and
cruelty, just as was affirmed by Allah and His Messenger.
For their religion is the last religion, and the world
can not be set right again without it. Of course, people
are in need of an Imam to erase imaginings, innovations
and deviations from Islam, and to save mankind and rescue
them from complete corruption, continual oppression and
enmity, and contempt for morality and human life. May
Allah hasten his reappearance.

We believe that the message of Islam is contained in
the person of Muhammad ibn 'Abdillah (S.A.), and that he
is the last prophet, the Seal of the Prophets, the Chief
among messengers, and the best of them, just as he is at
the apex of all humanity, and none can compare with him
in excellence and grace, generosity and intellect, and
no-one can approach him in his virtuousness. Verily he
has a lofty moral behaviour, and no-one will be like him
up to the Day of Judgement

We believe that the Qur'an was Divinely inspired, and
revealed by Allah on the tongue of His honourable
Prophet, making clear everything, an everlasting miracle.
Man is unable to write anything like it because of its
eloquence, clarity, truth and knowledge, and no
alteration can be made to it. The Qur'an we have now is
exactly what was sent to the Prophet, and anyone who
claims otherwise is either an evil-doer, a mere sophist
or else a person in error, and all of them have gone
astray, because it is the speech of Allah, and:

Falsehood cannot come at it from before it or from
behind. (41;42)

One of the testimonies to the miraculous nature of the
Qur'an is that. as time moves on and the arts and
sciences advance, it remains as fresh and harmonious as
ever, its supreme aims and ideals preserved. There can be
no grounds for dispute with it, nor does it contradict
true scientific facts, and there is nothing in it
contrary to positive philosophical thinking. On the
contrary, it is the books of scientists and even the
greatest of philosophers, at the pinnacle of learning,
which contain at least a few trivialities and
contradictions and even incorrect assertions. Moreover,
with advances in scientific research and with modern
scientific theories, even the greatest philosophers of
Greece, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, whom all
those who have come after have recognised as the fathers
of science and the masters of thought, have been shown to
have made some errors.

We also believe that we must respect and give dignity
to the Glorious Qur'an, and this both in word and in
deed. Therefore, it must not be defiled intentionally,
not even one of its letters, and it must not be touched
by one who is not tahir. It is said in the Qur'an:

None can touch it save the purified. (56;79)

This subject is dealt with in books of Islamic law.

Neither is it permitted to burn it or to be impious
towards it by any behaviour which is deemed to be
insulting, such as throwing it, making it unclean, or
putting one's foot on it; nor is it permitted to put it
in a filthy place. If someone intentionally does any of
these things or anything similar, he is not a believer in
the Qur'an and its sanctity, and he is considered to be
an unbeliever. In fact he has rejected the Lord of all
the worlds.

If someone (a non-Muslim) should argue with us and ask
us for reasons to demonstrate the truth of Islam, we
could prove it through the eternal miracle of the Qur'an,
and by reference to its miraculous nature, as we have
explained before.

Here, however, it is our intention to satisfy our own
minds, in the event that we should wish to find assurance
concerning the truth of Islam; for sometimes it happens
that such a question arises on the mind of a
liberal-thinking man, when he desires to strengthen his
faith.

As for the previous religions such as Judaism and
Christianity, there is no way to prove the truth of them
or to satisfy ourselves or anyone else who doubts them,
without there being faith in Islam; for they have no
eternal miracle like the Qur'an. And the miracles of the
former prophets which their followers bring forward as
evidence are unacceptable, because the verity of the
narration is suspect. The books of the former prophets
which have been handed down to us, that is to say the
books which are related to these prophets such as the
Torah and the Gospels, are in no way an eternal miracle
which can be put forward as a convincing reason for the
truth of their religions, which, nevertheless, have been
confirmed by Islam.

It is clear that when we accept and believe in Islam,
we must also believe in whatever it has brought and
confirmed, and one of its teachings is the prophethood of
many previous prophets, as we have described above. It
therefore follows that a Muslim, after he has accepted
the teachings of Islam, is not required to evaluate the
truth of Christianity or Judaism or other such religions,
because belief in Islam necessarily entails belief in the
former religions and prophets. What is more, the Muslim
does not need to verify the truth of the miracles of the
former prophets.

However, if someone investigates the Islamic religion,
but is not convinced of it, it is incumbent on him, as a
rational necessity, to evaluate the truth of
Christianity, because it is the last religion previous to
Islam.
Then, if he is not convinced by Christianity he must
consider Judaism, because it is the religion previous to
Christianity and Islam, and he must continue in this way
until he finds a religion about whose truth he feels
certain.

By similar reasoning, it is clear that someone who has
grown up believing in Judaism or Christianity must
consider other religions to which people have been called
by a prophet who came after their own prophet. For
example, the Jews must evaluate Islam and Christianity
according to what was said previously about the necessity
to consider religions rationally, and Christians must
consider the truth of Islam. It follows that neither of
them can be excused for believing in their own religions
while ignoring the subsequent religions because there is
nothing in Judaism or Christianity which could contradict
these religions, for neither Musa (A.S.) nor 'Isa (A.S.)
stated that no prophet would come after them. It is
surprising how Christians and Jews can be sure in their
belief and in their religions without considering the
truth of the subsequent and last religion.

Wisdom dictates that they weigh the truth of the
subsequent religion or religions. And if the truth is not
established, then they should continue with their
original beliefs. The Muslim, on the other hand, as we
stated earlier, because of his belief in Islam, has no
need to consider the truth of the previous religions or
of any future ones. As for the previous religions.
Islam has confirmed them; however, the Muslim should not
follow their commandments or their books, because Islam
has superseded them. And as regards future religions, the
Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (A.S.) said:

No prophet will come after me.

Since in the eyes of a Muslim the Prophet is honest
and truthful, and, as Allah has said:

Nor does he speak from his own desire. This is nought
but a revelation revealed. (53;3-4)

there is no need to prove the falsity of any new
religion.

Now it is the duty of a Muslim, when a long period has
elapsed since the time of the Prophet, and many opinions,
beliefs and sects have arisen, to choose the way which he
can be sure will guide him to the commandments of Allah
as they were sent to Muhammad (S.A.), because the Muslim
must carry out all the commandments as they were revealed
to the Prophet. So how can he be sure that these
commandments are the same as were revealed to the
Prophet? Just as Muslims are divided into different sects
on the basis of their opinions, so their prayer, worship
and behaviour vary. What, then, should he do? What school
should he follow in his worship and in such matters as
marriage, divorce, inheritance, buying and selling,
punishment, blood-money and the like?

It is not correct that he should follow his father,
family or friends, for he must be certain of what he
believes in. There can be no insincerity, partiality or
fanaticism in religion. He is obliged to select
rationally the way he believes to be the best, so as to
be sure of his religious obligations and his
responsibility towards Allah, and so that Allah will not
punish him or reproach him for what he has done,
believing it to be correct. Also, he should no listen to
those who deride him for following the true path. Allah
has said:

Does man think that he is to be left aimless. (75;36)

Also he has said:

Nay, man shall be a clear proof against himself.
(75;14)

and

Lo! this is a reminder, that whosoever will, may
choose a way unto his Lord. (76;29)

The first question he must ask himself is whether the
way of the Household of the Prophet, or another way,
should be followed. Then if he chooses the way of the
Household of the Prophet, he must choose between the ithna
'ashariyyyah and other sects. Or, if he choose the
Sunni path, he must choose which of the four madhahib
(pl. of madhhab) he should follow. All these
questions arise for a liberal-minded person, so he should
keep a clear mind and not be confused.

Let us therefore consider the Imamate, on which the
beliefs of the ithna 'ashariyyah depend.